


Off Course

by idrilhadhafang



Series: Game of Shadow-Verse [1]
Category: Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Anakin Skywalker Doesn't Turn to the Dark Side, By Palpatine, Canon Divergence - Order 66, Established Anakin/Padme, Fix-It of Sorts, Gray Mace Windu, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Mace Windu Lives, Multi, Opens with character death, Padmé Amidala Lives, Past Rape/Non-con, Protective Padmé Amidala
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-21
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:08:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24830608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Mace Windu kills Palpatine.
Relationships: Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker
Series: Game of Shadow-Verse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1796104
Kudos: 55





	1. Intervention

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing. 
> 
> Author’s Notes: Call this a prequel to a Darkpilot No Order 66 AU I’m starting.

Anakin Skywalker could only watch as Mace Windu stood over the decapitated body of Chancellor Palpatine, breathing heavily. He deactivated his purple lightsaber, turned towards Anakin. There was something about the sheer look in his eyes, like a light had gone out, that was enough to scare Anakin more than if Mace had truly fallen. He hadn’t, but the knowledge that the Republic he loved had been controlled by one of the Jedi’s enemies...

”It’s finished,” Mace said. “He can’t hurt anyone else.”

”What have you done?” Anakin said. “He...he was helpless...”

”Far from it,” Mace said. “Sheev Palpatine...I will give him credit. He was a good actor. Too good.” He sounded disgusted. “It’s an atrocity that he did any of this. Setting up the attempt on Senator Amidala’s life, nearly turning the Republic into a fascist regime...I had hoped that we could merely arrest him, but in the end...there are times when there are no right decisions.”

”The Jedi don’t kill opponents when they’re unarmed.”

”And I suppose the fact he was about to electrocute me didn’t count?”

Anakin paused. That was a point. It had been Palpatine trying to electrocute Mace. There had been something selfish in Anakin, wanting to take a third option, letting Palpatine and Mace both live, just so Padme would...

”I don’t blame you, Skywalker,” Mace said. “Palpatine...Sidious...he manipulated us. All of us. He was a master actor, a master dejarik player. Even towards people who would...”

He broke off. Anakin knew what Mace was going to say. It was like the reveal of Palpatine’s identity had driven him past the point of no return. The hope he’d had. The love he had. Here, he’d thought Mace was unfair for so long, but now...

”Master Windu,” Anakin said, “I’m sorry.”

”I don’t blame you." Mace said. ”There was nothing about this situation that was your fault, Skywalker. I only wonder if the Republic is worth salvaging after this. If I can stay.”

Anakin thought back to the meadow on Naboo. How he had talked to Padme about his frustrations about how the Republic worked. How she had said that his vision of the Republic had sounded much like a dictatorship, and how he had joked about if it worked...

Now, what if he put his plans into action? Electing someone wise to take over?

”The Republic’s still worth saving,” Anakin said. “I know that much. Palpatine, Sidious...he may have manipulated it for a while. And we might have had moments of stagnancy in the past. But...what if we had a new Chancellor? Someone who could make things right for a change?”

”Can anyone?” Mace said. 

”Padme could." For all Anakin had disagreed with his wife’s views in the past, she was earnest, full of hope and belief and idealism. The Republic needed that. They needed someone who could do good for a change. 

”You may be correct,” Mace said. “If anyone could clean up the mess that Sidious created, she could.” A beat. “Skywalker...perhaps there were times I judged you too harshly?”

”Perhaps there were times I did the same, Master Windu.”

Silence. 

”You should go,” Mace said. “Mas Amedda and others...they’ll be looking for you. I can take this from here. I have a plan.”

”I hope so,” Anakin said. He would vouch for Mace at the trial if necessary. 

***

It turned out that Mace was right — he did have a plan. He’d used the audio that Palpatine had foolishly recorded (likely trying to make it look like Mace had tried to kill him) to reveal the truth, to the Council and later to the Senate. Within weeks, just about everyone knew that Palpatine was Sidious, and collaborators were arrested — Orson Krennic, Wilhuff Tarkin, and more. 

Truthfully, it should have been satisfying. The war ending. Grievous being dead, Sidious being dead. Instead, Anakin felt a sick sort of guilt. It wasn’t the fear of Padme dying; she had miraculously survived childbirth and given birth to two beautiful twins Anakin knew he’d protect with his life. 

It was the fact that Anakin had trusted Palpatine. Called him his friend. When Palpatine had controlled everything — even the Skywalker line, as he’d been the one who’d manipulated the midichlorians to impregnate Anakin’s mother according to additional evidence Mace had found. 

It was the fact Anakin had been looking for a father figure his whole life, and now...now he’d lost his family again in a way. Now he had to learn to live with it. 


	2. Heritage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anakin comes to grips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

She must have sensed that he was distracted. Very distracted. Anakin had tried to focus on dinner, on tending to Luke and Leia, their newborns, and he’d done well all things considered. But he was still distracted. Distracted by the unexpected, powerful grief that had built up in his chest over the past few days. 

Obi-Wan didn’t know yet. Anakin wasn’t ready to tell him, to know if Obi-Wan would reject him or not. But he felt the pain of what could have been. A father, a friend. Palpatine’s death shouldn’t have felt like losing his mother all over again, but...

Padme noticed, and even Anakin trying to change the subject didn’t convince her. 

“Ani,” Padme said softly, “Remember what I said about being honest with each other?”

Anakin took a deep breath. How did he even begin to explain any of it? The fact that he should have been happy about the war being over, but... “It’s not...worrying about you dying,” he said. “Not this time. But I’m still lost. I wondered who my father was for a long time. Even when Mom said that there was no father, I had this feeling she was lying."

"What do you mean?” Padme said. 

Anakin explained. “And...and now I’m just...wondering,” he said, “If that was really why the Council didn’t want to train me. If they just sensed that _he_ was in my genes, in my veins. If that was another reason I killed the Tuskens at the camp, if I really was, in a way, my father’s son...”

”Anakin, you’re nothing like him.” And Padme’s voice...there was so much hope in it, so much belief. “You did your share of things you need to make up for. But you’re a good man. A good, kind man. You’re the man I chose. You, no one else. Kind, loving, true."

”I don’t deserve your faith.”

”You do,” Padme said. "Ani...I can feel what you’re thinking, and I know, more than anything, that you are so much better than you think you are."

Of course she thought that. Even when he had committed murder at the Tusken camp, she’d forgiven him. It was more than he deserved, of course. 

”I’m sorry,” Padme said. “I’m sorry you lost your family again. I’m sorry for...everything Palpatine did.”

”It wasn’t your fault.”

He kissed her forehead. There was still a lot to handle, of course. A lot to do. Protecting Luke and Leia. Rebuilding the Republic. But for now, holding her, Anakin could be grateful, so very grateful, for the gifts the Force had given him. 


End file.
